The Dead Marine Job
by Buddi563
Summary: I've stopped working on this fanfiction and have replaced it with "This Ain't a Scene".  Please check that out instead!
1. Chapter 1

Tony poked his head out of the elevator and glanced at the team's office. Ziva and McGee were both at their desks, silently tapping away at their keyboards. After concluding that Leroy Jethro Gibbs was not at his desk, Tony found it fit to glide toward his desk, an accomplished grin on his face. He set his bag down on the ground beside him and took off his jacket.

"Boy, was I lucky," he said, hanging the jacket around the back of his chair. "Good thing boss-man isn't here yet." Ziva peered at him over her computer screen. Tony was unable to see her smile, but he did notice her and McGee quickly glance at one another. "Where is he, anyway?"

"That's just what I was getting ready to ask about you, DiNozzo," Tony heard from the MTAC balcony. He flinched.

"How are you doin' boss?" he asked playfully, turning around to watch Gibbs descend from the staircase.

"I'd be doin' a whole lot better if my team showed up on time," the older man responded. Tony kept a smile on his face.

"Heh, heh, funny story, really," he began. "You see, this morning my car was…" Tony realized Gibbs wasn't interested so he began to trail off. "flat tire… traffic… no parking…" Gibbs raised his eyebrows and waited for Tony to stop talking.

"Are you finished?" he asked. Tony put his head down.

"Yes, sir," he said.

"Good," Gibbs said. "Then, gear up. We've got a dead Marine." The team stood up and grabbed their belongings as quickly as possible before following Jethro to the elevator.

"What do we have this time, boss?" McGee asked, last to step into the elevator.

"25 year old Sergeant Robert Wilson. He washed up near the bay this morning," Gibbs explained.

When the team arrived at the port, they were greeted by a handful of policemen and a crowd of on-lookers.

"We found him this morning at about 6 o'clock. Our workers were unloading the shipments on the boats as they do every morning, but it was Derek who saw the man just below, floating face down," one of the shipping port's managers told Gibbs as he took notes. Tony and Ziva were scoping the surrounding area for any type of evidence, or anything that would help with the case. Ducky and Palmer pulled up only a few moments later.

"Ah, Jethro, what do we have here?" he asked, doing a once-over inspection on the blue body.

"Sergeant Wilson, washed up to the bay this morning," Jethro explained, casually taking a sip of his hot coffee.

"I see," Ducky said as he moved the dead figure around to get a better look. "By the looks of this young fellow, I would have to initially say that drowning is the cause of death." Gibbs didn't look exactly satisfied with Ducky's observation. "However," the old man continued. "There's obvious indications of a fight." Palmer proudly picked up the dead Marine's right hand and helped Ducky go into more depth.

"You can see that the knuckles are bruised, like he punched somebody," Palmer stated. "It was probably a good punch, too, if his hand got this black and blue before he died. I would expect whoever he hit has a broken nose, or jaw… maybe ribs or something." Ducky and Gibbs stared at Palmer.

"We found something!" Ziva shouted from below the docks. Gibbs and McGee walked in their direction, leaving Ducky and Palmer to the body. Ziva put on her gloves and picked up a few bullet casings, dropping them carefully into evidence bags. Tony was a little closer to the water, where he picked up a pistol, also placing it into an evidence bag.

"Did the body have any bullet wounds, boss?" Tony asked, squinting from the sun's brightness, trying to see Gibbs' face through the cracks of the dock.

"No," Gibbs responded.

"Huh," Tony sighed. "Whoever was shooting at this guy then must have had horrible aim. I'm guessing that was why they ended up… how did the Sergeant die, exactly?"

Gibbs shrugged, quickly glancing back at Ducky and Palmer, who were putting the body into a bag in order to load it into their truck. "Dunno yet," he answered. "Keep looking."


	2. Chapter 2

**Dear readers, please deal with me and my NCIS scenes. I love NCIS, but I'm not super crazy about it, so I'm sorry if the characters aren't strictly canon. I'm trying, and I'm open to any critiques! Thanks guys!**

**Chapter 2**

"Robert Wilson has a family back in Boston," McGee explained, showing the team a picture of the dead marine, a young woman, and a young boy about 4 years old, from the television screen, clicking his remote to change the picture when needed. "Our records show he has been in and out of George Washington University Hospital receiving _chemotherapy_."

"What for?" Ziva asked inquisitively, biting the tip of her pen.

"Err," Tim said, flipping through his papers. "Liver cancer."

"What about suspects, McGee," Gibbs said, growing impatient.

"The guy has a pretty clean track record," Timothy continued. "except for one thing. About five years ago Sergeant Wilson got tied up in some gang business. I guess one of his best friends Oliver Phillips, also a marine, got involved with some arms dealings. The police were called in when a massive fight broke out amongst the gang while Wilson was there, leaving three dead including his friend."

"Sergeant Wilson came up clean after the police investigation," Tony chimed in. "But Phillips' family, especially Oliver's father, began harassing Wilson and his family. They blamed him for Oliver's gang dealings; said Wilson was a bad influence on him."

"How in the world could anybody say something like that about this man?" Ziva asked, pointing to the picture of the marine with his wife and child. McGee shrugged. Gibbs shifted his weight anxiously.

"Bring Mr. Phillips in for questioning then," he instructed. "I'm going to see if Ducky has found anything yet."

In the morgue, Gibbs found Ducky happily chatting away at the dead body.

"What have you got, Duck?" Gibbs asked, announcing his presence in case the sliding door hadn't already given it away.

"Ah, Jethro," the coroner said, looking up from the chart he was scribbling notes onto. "As always, you have impeccable timing." Gibbs smirked as he approached Ducky.

"Good," Gibbs said. "What story does this marine tell you?" Ducky smiled, carefully pointing to a section of the dead man's head that looked a bit beaten.

"This man suffered severe head trauma before entering the water," he began. "Various scrapes and bruises tell us that this man was involved in a pretty hefty fight before he was knocked out by this head injury. After falling or being thrown into the bay, the unconscious Sergeant Wilson drowned. You know, my grandfather used to tell me don't play…"

"Ducky," Jethro said to retrieve the man's attention. "Did the toxicology results come back yet?"

"Indeed they did, actually, just before you arrived," Ducky responded. "Quite shocking, really." Gibbs leaned over Ducky's shoulder to peer at the piece of paper. "Abby found a trace of some type of steroid; something we've never seen before. Other than that, the elevated white blood cell count and the chemotherapy, all the other levels in this man's body are perfect."

"Ducky? Ducky?" a familiar voice said from the webcam next to Ducky's computer. Ducky stepped aside and peered behind him to see Abby peeking in on the morgue. When she caught sight of Gibbs, she became even more excited. "Gibbs, Gibbs! You're just the person I wanted to see!"

"Then why on earth did you call my office?" Ducky said, pretending to be appalled to tease the forensic scientist.

"Because I wanted to see if you knew where Gibbs was!" she exclaimed.

"You have something for me already, Abs?" Gibbs asked. Abby looked offended.

"Don't you have any faith in me, Gibbs?" she asked, smirking.

"I'm on my way."

Gibbs found Abby in her lab, going through files on her computer.

"What've you got, Abs?" Gibbs asked. Abby jumped up and wrapped her arms around Gibbs.

"It's so good to see you, Gibbs!" she said happily. Gibbs patted her back and grinned.

"What've you got, Abs?" he asked again. She hopped back and her pigtails bounced. The boss followed Abby over to her evidence table where he noticed McGee, filling out paperwork.

"This gun, Gibbs, is Sergeant Wilson's," Abby stated proudly. Gibbs continued looking at her expectantly. "This is the weapon that knocked the sergeant out. The barrel matches the wound on his head perfectly."

"Okay," Gibbs said. "So somebody used his gun to knock him out. Were there any prints?" Abby frowned.

"The only prints on the gun were Wilson's," she admitted. "However, there was some blood on his clothes. It wasn't the sergeant's, so we did some DNA testing."

"And?" Gibbs smiled.

"McGee!" Abby pointed to her co-worker. Tim dropped his pen and pulled up a military ID from Abby's computer, projecting it onto the wall just beyond. Gibbs looked at it intently.

"Sergeant Mason Gerald," McGee began. "He left the military 3 years ago, around the same time as Sergeant Wilson. He now works for Starlex, a pharmaceutical manufacturing company specializing in steroids." McGee noticed the flash of realization in Gibbs' eyes. "What's up, boss?"

"Where is the Starlex office?" Gibbs inquired.

"Boston, why?" McGee asked.

"I'll be damned, McGee," Gibbs said. "We're goin' to Boston."


	3. Chapter 3

**Chapter 3**

"Damn it, Hardison," Eliot growled after Hardison's excited outburst after leveling up on World of Warcraft.

"Sorry, man," Hardison said to appease Eliot, even though he really wasn't sorry. Eliot yanked out his ear bud and shoved it into his pocket, taking a sip from his mug of beer. He watched as Nate stood up from his chair to greet the client.

"Thank you so much for seeing me on such short notice, Mr. Ford," the young woman said as she shook Nate and the hitter's hands and took the seat Nate pulled out for her. "My name is Marie."

"That's what we're here for," he assured her. She was a young woman, no older than 27. She looked like she had been crying hard in the past few hours. "So, you said your husband was killed last night."

"Yes," the woman said sniffling. "His name was Robert Wilson, a marine." Eliot chewed at his lip and furrowed his brow. "They found him washed up at the shipping port in Washington D.C. this morning.

"Why do you think he was murdered?" Nate asked inquisitively.

"Oh, I know why he was murdered," Marie answered, rubbing a tissue under her nose. "He was trying to make more money in order to support me and our son, Blake, by participating in a secret study by the company Starlex. They were testing a new steroid that helps correct asthma for soldiers."

"But the military doesn't accept men with asthma," Nate chimed in.

"Exactly," Marie continued. "Robert has been one of their test subjects since the beginning. The steroid worked so well that it helped his asthma and he was able to join the marines without them even knowing he had asthma. It worked perfectly, except for the fact that it gave him liver cancer."

Nate sat back in his chair and took a drink of Whiskey. Eliot eyed him carefully.

"I was on the phone with Robert last night. The steroid shipped from D.C. last night. It will debut to the public sometime next week. Robert was begging them to stop the shipment, because he knew it would cost lives instead of help them. Things must have gotten out of control and they killed him."

"So the metropolitan police are working the case then?" Nate asked. "I'm sure they'll be sending you over in order to speak with them."

"NCIS is working the case," she answered. "They were going to send me down to speak with them, but I think they made the connection between the shipment and Starlex. They're coming to Boston this evening."

"What's NCIS?" Nate questioned the woman, never having heard of them before.

"Naval Criminal Investigative Service," Eliot stated. When he noticed Nate was still lost, he elaborated. "They investigate crimes involving the Navy and Marines." Marie nodded.

"And they're coming here," Nate pondered, taking another sip of his drink. "We're not exactly crime solvers, Mrs. Wilson. Perhaps you should just let NCIS come in and do what they do."

"No," Marie declared. Eliot noticed her hands shaking.

"Have you heard from Starlex?" he questioned. She looked at him nervously.

"They gave me $10,000 in hush money," she said, a tear escaping her eye. "They threatened to kill my son and me if I said anything to the feds." She dabbed her eyes with the tissue and Nate gave her a reassuring pat on the hand. "I trust my government, Mr. Ford. I'm sure they can figure out who killed my husband, but then who will stop them from releasing the steroid? It will still kill hundreds of soldiers from liver cancer before they're even found out." Nate smirked.

"That's more our specialty," he told her. "Go home, cooperate with NCIS when they get here, and don't mention us. We don't need the government on our tail too." She nodded and stood up from her seat.

"Thank you," she said sincerely before leaving McRory's. Eliot glanced at Nate.

"You really think we should take on a case when the government is going to be involved? Don't you think that's a little risky?" he asked, questioning his leader.

"Now is the time to do it," Nate responded. "We'll just have to be even more careful than usual." Eliot grinded his teeth. "Assemble the team, Hardison," Nate said into his earpiece.

**Thank you so much for reading! I promise chapters will be longer as soon as I combine the shows! **


	4. Chapter 4

**Chapter 4**

"You know, I don't have all day," Gibbs said, slamming a stack of papers onto the table and standing up from his chair. Mr. Phillips glared at the man and sneered.

"I told you," he began. "That Wilson kid has been nothing but trouble. Yes, I believe he is the reason my son was killed, but I would _never_be able to take a life myself."

"But you had the integrity to violently harass his family for months," Gibbs prodded. "They have a restraining order against you."

"I was an alcoholic!" the man being interrogated explained, raising his voice defensively.

"How the _hell_ does that make any difference?" Gibbs yelled, lowering himself to be face-to-face with the man.

"I wouldn't have said or done anything that I did if I were sober," Phillips said, sounding somber.

"Where were you last night, huh?" asked Gibbs. "Were you drunk?"

"I was home, watching TV," Phillips answered. He began to grind his teeth.

"Was your wife home to verify that?" Gibbs then questioned. The man shook his head 'no'. "What did you watch?" Phillips paused, obviously contemplating something. He knew they would be able to tell whether or not he was telling the truth.

"I was watching Eclipse on HBO," he confessed.

"Aha! And the truth comes out!" Tony shouted triumphantly on the other side of the two way mirror. "Big tough guy Herald Phillips confesses his love for our sparkling vampire friends." Next to Tony, Ziva chuckled.

"I do not think he is lying," she stated. Obviously, their boss was thinking the same thing. He picked up his stack of papers and exited the interrogation room. Tony and Ziva met him in the hall.

"Get him out of here, he didn't do it," Gibbs told the two. "Pack your bags. We have a plane to catch."

"Yes, boss," Tony responded.

"Marcus Durand is the owner of Starlex," Hardison explained to the team. Nate stood in the kitchen of his apartment, finding himself something to eat while Sophie sipped coffee and Parker munched happily on a fresh bowl of popcorn. She offered the bowl to Eliot who glared at her, eyebrows narrowed.

"Aren't you sick of that stuff yet, Parker?" he growled, pushing the bowl back into her arms. Hardison stared at the two.

"Excuse me, I was talkin'," he said. Parker smirked as her focus returned to the hacker and she threw a bite of popcorn into her mouth. Eliot folded his hands and faced forward. Sophie smirked at the two. From the kitchen, Nate impatiently indicated Hardison to continue. "Thank you," the hacker said before grabbing a piece of Parker's popcorn himself and turning back to their display of computer screens that were filled with images of documents and a profile picture of Starlex's CEO."

"According to Marie Wilson, her husband has been a test subject for the asthma steroid, called EasyAyr, for over five years," Hardison continued. "Publicly, Starlex has only been testing the drug on patients for about two years. There are no records of Wilson and who knows else that have been testing EasyAyr. None of the recent test subjects have gotten cancer yet."

"How do we even know Sergeant Wilson wasn't the only person to get cancer?" Sophie asked. "Couldn't it have just been him?" Nate shook his head, making his way over to the rest of the team.

"Marie mentioned a few of Wilson's friends who were in the same boat," he explained. "He wasn't the only one. It just takes the steroid a few years to cause the cancer."

"Oh, I see," Parker stated, her mouth full of popcorn. "They're releasing the drug now before the public realizes that it causes cancer, so they still make their money."

"Very good, Parker," Sophie said, half sarcastically, half actually impressed.

"How are we going to do this, Nate?" Eliot asked. "This wouldn't normally be a problem, but the fed is going to be involved. We're thieves; I think they're going to notice something is up. And don't you think they'll be able to figure all this out themselves?"

"We can do it better. Trust me, Eliot," Nate told the hitter, locking his eyes on Eliot's.


	5. Chapter 5

**Chapter 5**

Nate handed Marie a very small camera disguised as a hairclip, and she placed it into her hair. They were standing just around the corner of a coffee shop. The federal agents had arrived in town and she was meeting with one of them for an interview.

"Don't act any differently than you normally would," Nate instructed, rubbing his hands together to warm them. As the day grew darker, the weather became cold, and Nate was not properly dressed. "Stay calm, but don't tell them anything you're afraid to tell them because of Starlex. We'll take care of those bastards." The woman nodded and turned toward the coffee shop. Nate walked to the parking lot down the road and met Hardison in the van where he was watching Marie steadily make her way to the coffee shop.

Gibbs sat at a booth inside the coffee shop. Drowsiness had begun to consume the man, so he welcomed the warm sensation as he sipped his coffee. When the woman he recognized as Sergeant Wilson's wife entered, he stood up and greeted her.

"Mrs. Wilson," he said, shaking the woman's hand. "I'm Special Agent Leroy Jethro Gibbs."

"It's nice to meet you," Marie responded. Her eyes ached and head throbbed from crying. Gibbs waited to sit down until Marie had done so first. She ordered herself a cup of black coffee and Gibbs began to ask questions.

"I'm sorry about your loss," he began. "Now, your husband was a test subject for Starlex's new product, Easyair, am I correct?" Marie nodded. "Our records also show that he was going through chemotherapy for liver cancer."

"Yes, sir," Marie said, trying to fight back tears.

"Did the doctors ever find any correlation between his testing of Easyair and the cancer, Miss Wilson?" he asked. The woman shrugged.

"I don't know," she lied, lip trembling. Gibbs didn't want to push her.

"Your husband was found dead this morning at the port where the shipment of Easyair being shipped from D.C. to Boston," he continued. "We believe he might have been there to stop the shipment for some reason. Do you know why he would have wanted to do that?" Marie shook her head no again. She knew he was there to stop the shipment to stop Starlex from causing cancer, but she didn't want the CEO behind bars, she wanted him ruined. The longer she held the feds from arresting the CEO and his company, the longer Nate and his team had to bring him down.

"Is there anyone in particular or any reason at all you could think of that would cause Robert to be at the shipping port last night?" Gibbs asked. She nodded her head 'no'.

"There was Oliver Phillip's father who has threatened us before, but I don't know why he would be at the shipping port. He had nothing to do with Starlex," she answered.

"We already interrogated Herold this afternoon; he checked out," Gibbs told her. He and the woman talked for a little longer. Gibbs wasn't able to get much out of her, and he could see that she was deeply troubled. "Well, Mrs. Wilson, I'll let you get back home to your son. If you can think of anything else, you know my number to call."

"Thank you so much, Agent Gibbs," she said, standing up and shaking the man's hand. "I'm sorry I wasn't much of a help." Gibbs gave her a charming, reassuring grin.

"Don't worry about it," he told her. "Go get some rest."

They left the coffee shop. Gibbs went back to his car and was on his way back to his hotel with the team for the night, while Marie walked briskly back to the van to meet with Nate and Hardison.

"I suck at this," she sighed, stepping out of the gold and removing her hairclip-video camera. "What else can I do to help?"

"You did fine," Nate reassured her. "We're going to come up with some ways to take on this big guy tonight and start working on this case. You go ahead home and be with your son, we'll take it from here. If you need anything at all, give us a call."

"Thank you," she said, hopping down from the van and to the back into the comforts of her Chevy Malibu in the parking space beside it.


	6. Chapter 6

**__**_Attention readers. I get a lot of new people favoriting this fanfiction every week. I'm so happy you guys like it- it's really encouraging. However, I hate to say it but I will be discontinuing this fic. Reason being: the plot was weak and there really was no reason for the Leverage team because NCIS totally could have dealt with it. That and the subject of cancer hit a little too close to home when my mom was recently diagnosed with breast cancer. However! I am redoing this fanfiction only with a new, better overall plot. Please check it out on my profile. It's titled " This Ain't a Scene"! _

_You'll also see me reusing some of my text in it, but I promise it'll be much better! _

_Thanks so much!_

_Love,_

_Buddi _


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